1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for electrically and physically mounting a processor card on a motherboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, processor cards are mounted perpendicularly and vertically on motherboards in edge connectors. There are drawbacks with this known method of mounting processor cards. When considering the physical configuration of the processor card, vertically mounting the card on the motherboard in a perpendicular orientation to the motherboard results in undesired physical stresses on the card. Processor cards are physically configured as thin, rectangular or square-shaped structures, which results in the card having large surface areas on the top and bottom of the card and small surface areas on each side edge of the card. Currently, as stated above, processor cards are vertically mounted on motherboards, i.e., with a single side edge of the card mounted on the motherboard, which results in the relatively small surface area of the card's side edge having to support the entire weight of the card. Also, not only is the side edge of the card required to support the weight of the card itself, but additionally the small surface area must support the heat sink on the card, if installed, as well. An additional drawback with current mounting methods is that, because there is only a single connection point between the processor card and the motherboard, significant moments are created about this point.
Therefore, because a very small surface area is required to support a relatively heavy weight, and further because the single mounting connection point between the card and the motherboard must be able to withstand the moments applied to this single connection point, a complex and cumbersome system of supports, guides and brackets may be required to adequately support the perpendicularly mounted processor card. In addition, such a support structure may require a large surface area on the motherboard for securing the support structure to the motherboard. This can result in difficulties when designing the motherboard due to the requirement to accommodate the supporting structure on the surface of the motherboard. Additionally, shake and vibration problems may still exist. Again, this can result from the weight and moments that must be carried by the single connection point between the edge of the processor card and the motherboard when vertically mounting the processor card.
An additional problem with the presently utilized system of mounting the processor card is that of heat dissipation. Because the card's largest surface area is vertically mounted, as heat dissipates from the card it does not dissipate directly away from the card but rather, as the heat dissipates upward, the heat will travel across the surface of the vertically mounted card. Thus, for some period of time, the dissipated heat remains in contact with the surface of the card, resulting in reduced heat transfer from the card.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for mounting a processor card on a motherboard that would eliminate the requirement to utilize a complex system of supports and that would allow for more efficient heat transfer from the processor card.